There were about 1,000 people in the stands and a full crew of referees on the field at Cathedral Catholic High on Saturday for San Diego State football’s Fan Fest.

But other than the ambience, little changed from what the Aztecs have shown in camp workouts on their own campus field the last two weeks.

They clearly have some dangerous weapons at the skill positions on offense, but their young offensive line remains a big question mark, and because the offense has had its struggles, it’s hard to tell just how good the defense is yet.

According to Aztecs head coach Rocky Long, almost nothing meaningful could be taken away from a glorified practice simply meant to give the fans a small glimpse of the team that begins the season on Sept. 1 with a daunting matchup at Washington.

“When you scrimmage each other, you have no idea who’s good,” Long said.

Yet he did provide this assessment when asked: “We’re so inconsistent. One minute we look pretty good and the next minute we look terrible.

“There were too many mistakes on offense, too many penalties. But I thought the offense looked good in the first half and the defense looked OK in the second half.”

The Aztecs’ first and second teams alternated playing for a full 60 minutes. Over about 22 drives started at various points in its own territory, the offense scored only four touchdowns.

Ryan Katz, the senior transfer from Oregon State who was named the starter on Monday, split time with backup Adam Dingwell and led three of the scoring drives. Overall, he went 17-for-33 for 218 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

But Katz also ran six drives that did not result in a single first down.

On many pass plays, Katz was under severe pressure in the backfield, but he couldn’t do much about it because Long barred him from running too far out of the pocket. He’s already shown he is fully capable of scrambling for good yardage.

“I know the defense sometimes thinks they have me, but I think differently,” Katz said with a smile. “We’ll see what happens come game time.”

The defense was credited with 12 “sacks” against the quarterbacks — though referees blew a quick whistle so as to not let the quarterback be tackled. Defensive tackle and Helix High alum Sam Meredith and linebacker Jake Fely (Oceanside) each had three sacks, and Fely made an interception of Dingwell that he returned 44 yards. Lineman Robert Craighead (El Capitan) also pulled down an interception after a pass was tipped.

For the passing game to be effective, Katz is going to need more protection.

“The offensive line struggled at times,” Long said. “As long as we played vanilla on defense, they did a nice job. As soon as we added some blitzes I don’t think it held up as good as it should or that it will need to.”

The Aztecs are showing plenty of spark at wide receiver. Colin Lockett, feeling more comfortable since transitioning from defense to start last season, made five catches for 104 yards, the bulk of it coming on a “bubble” screen pass to the sideline by Katz in which Lockett had to beat one defender before racing 72 yards for a touchdown.

“Those are a quarterback’s dream, when you can throw a little bubble pass and watch a guy run for 80,” Katz said.

Also looking formidable is receiver Brice Butler, the senior transfer from USC. With Dingwell quarterbacking his first drive, Butler caught passes of 20 and 10 yards, the latter going for a touchdown. Butler ended up with four catches for 50 yards.

Long mostly kept under wraps the projected running back tandem of Adam Muema and Walter Kazee. Muema ran only four times for 2 yards and, as expected, Kazee didn’t play at all because he’s being saved for the season following a knee injury last year.

Two redshirt freshman running backs looked promising. Madison High alum De’Saan Hardwick (10 carries, 86 yards) broke off a 39-yard run and eventually scored on a 1-yard run. And Chase Price — the Aztecs’ most compact tailback at 5-feet-8, 200 pounds — carried seven times for 26 yards and scored on a 2-yard run.

Notes

Long, who is considering going for every fourth down in opponents’ territory, faced only one comparable situation. On fourth-and-8 at the 31, the Aztecs were unsuccessful and the pass was nearly intercepted.

• Dingwell was 7-for-17 for 68 yards with one TD and one interception.

•Starting tight end Gavin Escobar was shaken up early in the scrimmage on a hard hit by safety J.J. Whitaker and did not return. Whitaker left after the same play and later watched from the sideline with a bag of ice on his shoulder.

•Left guard Japheth Gordon, on top of the depth chart at a competitive position, appeared to injure his left leg and limped off the field. There was no report on his condition.